One American family: Obama offers condolences to families of Chapel Hill shooting victims

US President condemns 'outrageous' murders. Says FBI probing the incident to see whether any federal laws were...

WASHINGTON: Having received flack from the likes of Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his 'silence' on the Chapel Hill shootings, US President Barack Obama on Friday offered his condolences to the families of the victims.

In a statement released by the White House, Obama and First Lady Michelle offered their condolences.

"No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like, or how they worship."

Referring to the massive funeral held for the victims, Obama said that it showed they were "all one American family."

To elaborate the point he pointed to a quote from one of the victims.

"Growing up in America is such a blessing,"Yusor said recently."It dosent matter where you come from. There are so many different people from so many different places, of different backgrounds and religion- but here we're all one."

Obama further said that the FBI had opened an investigation into the murders. They will probe, in addition to an ongoing investigation by local authorities, whether federal laws were violated.

"We are all one American family." -Obama on murders of Yusor Abu-Salha, Deah Barakat, and Razan Abu-Salha pic.twitter.com/qzOAseBerD

— Obama NSC- Archived (@NSC44) February 13, 2015

Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammad, 21, and her 19-year-old sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha were shot to death Tuesday by a neighbor in what police said was being investigated as a parking dispute. The father of the two sisters has said that the killer had shot them “execution style” and reiterated that it was a hate crime.